Booting your Windows 7 computer from a USB flash drive can be useful in the event you want to install or reinstall Windows 7, or if you want to recover Windows 7 from a major virus or error. Follow the steps below to learn how to boot from USB on your Windows 7 computer.

Steps

Part 1

Downloading the Windows 7 ISO File

1

Go to the Microsoft Store at www.microsoftstore.com/.

If you already have the Windows 7 ISO file saved to your hard drive or a USB flash drive and know how to access the file, skip to Part Two of this article.

2

Click on “Sign in” at the upper right corner of your Microsoft Store session. You can only download the Windows 7 ISO file if you purchased Windows 7 from the Microsoft Store.

3

Enter your Windows Live email address and password, and click on “Sign in.”

4

Navigate to the “Downloads” section of your account profile, and select “Re-download product.”

5

Select the Windows 7 ISO file from the list of options provided. The ISO file was made available to you at the same time you purchased Windows 7.

6

Select the option to download the Windows 7 ISO file to a location on your hard drive or to a USB flash drive.

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Tips

If the “Install Windows” screen fails to appear when you boot from USB, your computer could be trying to read the DVD drive by default. If this occurs, you will need to modify your computer’s BIOS settings to indicate that you want to use USB instead of DVD as the default drive. Refer to your computer’s manufacturer manual to determine how to modify BIOS settings.

If you are using Windows 7 on a tablet or other touchscreen device, you may need to attach a mouse and keyboard to your device in order to access tools in the System Recovery Options menu.

Warnings

Back up all existing data on your USB flash drive before you use it with the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. The download tool will erase all existing data from your flash drive before moving over the installation files.